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From one Bury to another...
Written on: 19 October 2010
The towns of Bury and Bury St Edmunds have both made recent headlines in the property press for different reasons.
The Rock developers Thornfield went into administration,
the Centre was rescued and opened 80% let on floor space. The other
Bury was sold to ING for £79.4m at a 5.55% yield.
Little do these headlines though tell the reader that in both
Bury's the town and older shopping centres are soldiering on but
not weathering the storm so well with high vacancy rates and a
challenge to win back their shoppers.
Both new shopping centres share several things in common in that
they are both open schemes, their location is slightly off pitch
from the original town centre, they have shiny fashion boxes
of the 21st century and a futuristic, modern looking Debenhams. And
of course, every new scheme has to have a new H&M, Next with
the odd Superdry thrown in.
Meanwhile, the older shopping centre in the town and some of the
big high street names have been left isolated, and certainly where
re-locations have taken place, the old units remain un-let. However
in both Bury's neither the new shiny Centre or the old stalwarts
are fully let, resulting in the customer having to visit both
Centres for the well rounded shopping trip. The older Centres still
very much have their part to play by offering a tenant mix that is
maybe not so fashion focussed.
But in the current economic climate have these towns drawn more
shoppers in or have they merely diluted the shoppers across a
greater mass of retail? The new Centres may be new and shiny
but when the rain comes out, the shopper may well vote with their
feet and run for cover.